I reproduce the article below, as links tend to go dead rather quickly sometimes.

Ali Losing Battle With Parkinson's

By John Raygoza

Former world heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali is losing his battle with Parkinson's disease, according to daughter Laila Ali.

Ali, 63, was diagnosed with Parkinson's in 1983, four years after his loss to Trevor Berbick.

Laila revealed to the L.A. Times that her father's condition has worsen. "I feel like the disease is progressing," Laila said. "Different things start happening as you get older. I have noticed a change in him, something that goes along with the Parkinson's. It's painful for me because I would love to sit down and talk to my dad about the way he used to be when he was my age, when he was in his prime because we are so much alike. I can't really do that. I can't share a lot of things with him."

"We don't talk about boxing," she said. "He might come to a fight and say, "You're bad.' But he was never one to talk much boxing with us. That was not him. And he doesn't talk much these days anyway. It takes him too much energy to talk. He has good days and bad days. He's taking a lot of different medications. Sometimes his speech is so slurred you can't hardly understand him. But he definitely knows what's going on. That's for sure. He sees everything."

Earlier this year, Muhammad Ali purchased a $2 million home in Paradise Valley, Arizona, 10 minutes outside of Phoenix.

I didn't think people actually died from Parkinson's, that's how much I know. At least he's lived with it a lot longer than the Pope did. has it ever been proved that boxing contributed to his condition?

That's a sore point with the Ali family. They insist not, so did he when he was still in a position to insist anything. His doctor Ferdie Pachecho quit for the last few fights because he thought Ali was shipping the kind of punishment that would lead to central nervous system damage. Also, his winning style in later fights of soaking up punishment left blows raining in round the back of his head and down his neck, prime sites for sustaining the kind of damage that would lead to Parkinsons.

There is a condition known by the slang name of Boxer's Parkinsons, so called because certain locations in the brain - like speech centres and control areas for the CNS - sustain damage as they are close to the main points of impact for punches. Ali's case has some similarities with Boxer's Parkinsons but his motor functions deteriorated more quickly than BP cases whilst his speech hung on longer, though now it's in bad shape.

Terminal Parkinson's cases can lose so much motor function that other causes - like Pneumonia - see them off. Something that seems possible for Ali. That wet cough he's sported for a few years now is an ominous sign.

Maryport is a disappointment for which there is no cure, but the annual Deathrace thread hereabouts provides welcome distraction.

I didn't think people actually died from Parkinson's, that's how much I know. At least he's lived with it a lot longer than the Pope did. has it ever been proved that boxing contributed to his condition?

I'm not 100% sure, but i don't think they did actuallyprove that his boxing career caused the illness. Althoughit probobly somehow helped trigger the disease.

I'm not 100% sure, but i don't think they did actuallyprove that his boxing career caused the illness. Althoughit probobly somehow helped trigger the disease.

Check my post above. It'll never be proven either way since we don't have an Ali who avoided boxing to compare with the real one. His family and the man himself take the line that it's unproven but boxing may have contributed. Most experts in the field think boxing is obviously a contributing factor if not the entire cause. The strongest evidence would be his ability to soak up punches in his later career, useful for winning fights but dangerous in the long term and the length of his career. His Parkinsons had probably started to set in before he turned forty, again not generally the case with the population at large and evidence that it might be boxing related.

Maryport is a disappointment for which there is no cure, but the annual Deathrace thread hereabouts provides welcome distraction.

Most experts in the field think boxing is obviously a contributing factor if not the entire cause. The strongest evidence would be his ability to soak up punches in his later career, useful for winning fights but dangerous in the long term and the length of his career. His Parkinsons had probably started to set in before he turned forty, again not generally the case with the population at large and evidence that it might be boxing related.

I've heard rumours that he was on massive does of steroids during his comeback days, which also may contribute to his current health problems.On the other hand, I don't remember Michael J Fox (the other Parkinson's poster boy) beating the bejeezus out of George Foreman, although the spectacle would be immensely entertaining.

As an aside in this debate on Ali's remaining brain cells there is a sad story in King or the World - David Remnick's masterful account of three heavyweight champions - Floyd Patterson, Sonny Liston and Ali - and the significance of the heavyweight title in the volatile times of the sixties.

Patterson, called as a witness at a hearing into the way boxing was run couldn't remember when and where he'd won his world heavyweight title!

Maryport is a disappointment for which there is no cure, but the annual Deathrace thread hereabouts provides welcome distraction.